Motorola to close Texas smartphone factory

FORT WORTH (AP) — Google’s Motorola Mobility smartphone unit will shutter its Texas factory by the end of 2014, barely a year after it opened with much fanfare as the first smartphone factory in the U.S.

Motorola Mobility spokesman Will Moss says sales of its flagship handset the Moto X were too weak and the costs of running the plant too high to keep operations going.

Gov. Rick Perry and Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt were in attendance opening day. Also there was Mike McNamara, CEO of Flextronics Ltd., the Singapore-based international contract electronics manufacturer that runs the plant.

Moss says the factory employs about 700 workers who assemble the Moto X smartphones for the U.S. market. He declined to comment on whether Motorola would retain the workers.

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